ZMapp: Medicine for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) ZMapp is an experimental biopharmaceutical drug comprising three humanized monoclonal antibodies under development as a treatment for Ebola virus disease. The drug was first tested in humans during the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak. The ZMapp drug is being developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., a result of the collaboration between Mapp Biopharmaceutical (San Diego), LeafBio (the commercial arm of Mapp Biopharmaceutical), Defyrus Inc. (Toronto), the U.S. government and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The antibody work came out of research projects funded by the U.S. Army more than a decade ago, and years of funding by the Public Health Agency of Canada. ZMapp is composed of three humanized monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that combine the best components of MB-003 (Mapp) and ZMAb (Defyrus/PHAC), each of which were combinations of mAbs. Two of the mAbs in ZMapp were taken from ZMab and one of them came from MB-003. MB-003 A study published in September 2012 found that Ebola-infected rhesus macaques survived when receiving MB-003 (mixture of 3 chimeric monoclonal antibodies) one hour after infection. When treated 24 or 48 hours after infection, four of six animals survived and had little to no viremia and few, if any, clinical symptoms. ZMAb A study published in November 2013 found that Ebolavirus-infected macaque monkeys survived after being given a therapy with a combination of 3 EBOV-GP-specific monoclonal antibodies (ZMAb) within 24 hours of infection. Also, two of four other monkeys that started therapy within 48 hours after infection also survived. The authors concluded that post-exposure treatment and a second lethal exposure after 10 and 13 weeks resulted in a robust immune response.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 05:17:10 +0000
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